Is it true that the well-rounded reader is the only kind worth being? If so, then what are the qualities of one? What does it take? Have you got the “right stuff”?
Some argue that being a well-rounded reader requires the same conditions as being a well-rounded person. If that’s true, then one should read a little bit of everything. But that implies a lack of discretion in one’s reading – a lack of taste. So, it seems to me that it takes more than just being a dilettante of the book to be a well-rounded reader.
Others argue that a well-rounded person should be able to hold a conversation with anyone on general topics such as geography, history, biography, travel, the arts, and, of course, literature. Now we may be getting somewhere, for in order to be widely conversant (not to be mistaken for authoritative) one must be, at least on some level, informed. Unless you are a traveler as well as a time-traveler, the only way I know to become a polyglot on conversational topics is by reading up on them.
As you travel through your life, you become acquainted through experience and learning with more ideas, more facts, more accumulation of the canon of civilization. While there are plenty of people more qualified than I to provide a list of books that begin rounding a reader’s rough edges, I have some ideas that I’ll disclose below.
Please turn the page.
Off the bat, let me make it clear that I won’t discuss academic reading, rather I’ll frame tonight’s discussion around recreational reading. Remember, our well-rounded reader is a conversationalist, not a lecturer.
Generally speaking, there are several approaches to turning yourself into that smooth-talking well-rounded reader, I suppose. One of them might be to join a book club. Now there is a sad truth about belonging to a book club. It’s incumbent on you – if you want to remain a member in good standing – to read the books that have been selected. Sometimes this can be a chore. Sometimes it can be such a chore that you immediately drop the book club because you discover that when reading is drudgery, it’s not recreational. You put the Oprah Book Club selection down when you realize that it isn’t worthy of your time.
I don’t think that reading with the goal of becoming well-rounded should be a chore. Recreation, after all, implies fun! For instance, I’m reading an historical novel by David Liss, The Whiskey Rebels. The hero is a rake, possibly a cad; the heroine is a murderess, quite possibly a sociopath; the ancillary characters all seem to be villains of one stripe or another, whether their last name is Hamilton, Jefferson, or Pearson, or Duer. What’s to like? Everything! I’ve learned tidbits of American history surrounding a minor event – the Whiskey Rebellion – that had huge implications for America’s federal reserve banking system, capitalism, economic development, and settling of the West. In short, it’s a view of American history with implications for American issues today. I could make conversation on topical events based on the events that I’m reading in this novel. For instance: the knavery of bankers; the manipulations of stock prices; the morality of espionage; the arbitrary ambiguity of the definition of traitor; racism and atrocities against blacks and Native Americans. Ring a bell with today’s headlines? Reading this book, I can feel myself getting rounder. [Okay, maybe it’s my couch potato personality translating to my corporeal self.]
Lest you think that fun is the only aspect of recreational reading, think again. Remember that corpulent corporeal self hinted at above? Recreation also can mean the moving around kind, which to some may be a euphemism for hard work. Like exercise, reading to be well-rounded may mean reading a hard book; unlike exercise, the goal of reading a hard book is to become well-rounded.
But there are ways to read hard books that can make the job easier. There’s no shame, no harm, and no foul in reading difficult literature in an annotated edition. Or with Cliff Notes at your side. On first reading, read fast. Don’t stop to analyze symbols. Read for the plot, ride the emotional wave. Don’t stop to think about writing style, begin comparative character analysis, unravel themes. Take the plunge of total immersion for the pleasure of being enchanted by a place or time or events you know you’ll never experience but that once you read the book, you’ll feel you have. Give yourself the chance to be swept away. Think Moby Dick.
So, what’s the take away? Being a well-rounded reader takes time and commitment. It involves choice based on informed decision; it shouldn’t involve suffering. It may best be accomplished through conversation and connection with other lovers of books and reading, whether a book club, a blog, or a habit of ferreting out award-winning books, or taking a chance on the featured volumes on display at your local library.
There are lists of books considered to be important to becoming a well-rounded reader. These lists vary in content and quality and type. For instance, this list is the highly personal one of an everyday reader. It’s eclectic and in my opinion includes books that make me gag as well as books that make me say, “Ahhhh.” Here’s another much shorter list from a site proclaiming itself to be The Well-Rounded Reader. Here’s a rather surprising list (surprising because it doesn’t just include business-oriented books) published by Business Week from contributor’s input. The maligned list of dead white male authors known as the Western Canon may be more academic and hard than recreational, but I include it because it is what it is – the top of the heap of literary output from Western Civilization. Project Gutenberg also has a list, and these books can be downloaded and read for free from their website.
All that’s left for you to do now is to tell us what 10 or so books you consider essential in making you a well-rounded reader. Please share your choices with us -- maybe y'all will polish my rough edges!
FYI
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